The Filming Process

Flora and I filmed last Wednesday and the experience was very revealing in the amount of organisation and planning that needs to be put towards the process. Thankfully we had already organised where we were going to film (that being the art block) aswell as the props needed and the two actress's (Laura and Laura). What with my name also being Laura, it was inevitable that this would cause a bit of confusion at times.


Although we were relitively organised before hand, we did not foresee the time it would take to rearange the room to suit our purpose. We had to move heavy tables and objects such as bins that we didn't really want to be in the shots so that we could make it less obvious where the setting was.


It then dawned on us that we were going to have to run through all of the shots with both Laura's so that they would know what to do, which took up additional time but was necessary to make sure we achieved the desired effect in the narrative and would match what we story boarded. Both Laura's were really great and followed the directions that we gave them, with was good considering that we hadn't talked them through our ideas previously and so had to do this as we filmed each shot.


My Role
I really enjoyed being a co-director with Flora and found that putting my ideas and vision across to her was easy enough, as thankfully her vision was very similar and so we were able to work in harmony with out any squabbles. This process of course was aided by us already being friends, also using our friends as actors meant that we were at ease with each other and so could work well together. In the real world of film production this would not work in the same way as you would be working with strangers and so would take time to get used to each other. I'm not sure that I would be able to communicate my ideas as effectively to people that I don't really know...I don't think I'm destined to be a film director. I am however still looking forward to filming my opening sequence, I quite like being able to boss people around as director : )


I was also put in charge of props. For this task I didn't really have much to do as the narritive is so short but for my opening sequenece I imagine that I may have considerably more to do in this departement. Not that I mind as it's one of my favourite parts of the production. So all I had to do was design the present, as without it the narrative would fall apart. I designed it so that it looked fairly elaborate, this was done because the majority of the shots included focus on the present either being given or opened. And as there was lots of close-ups, it was important for it to have an impact. The strange thing is that the present doesn't actually have anything inside of it, this was because it would be irrelevant as we don't show what's inside, enabling the audience to wonder what it could potentually be.


The filming of the majority of shots went really smoothly. We shot each shot twice to ensure that we would have choice when editing. The only other issue that became evident was the lack of two video cameras, this made shooting the match-on-action shots considerably more complex to make sure that they matched up propperly. We won't know for sure if we have been successful in doing this until we begin editing. Nether the less we managed to get done in the time given and am feeling confident that our end result will be as we planned.

Do's and Don'ts for Filming - what I'll think about and apply for later filming in my coursework.


Do- Organise the location
Do- Organise any props that are needed
Do- Arrange actors and communicate effectively before and during filming
Do- Arrange whatever costumes may be needed to keep the narrative realistic
Do- Arrange to use two cameras to assist with match-on-action shots
Don't- Forget to keep refering to your story board during the filming process
Don't- forget to discuss the suitability and adaptability of the chosen location
Don't- work with people with the same name as you (if possible)